Soul Man
by Sora-M-Jigen
Summary: The Lord works in mysterious ways....Oneshot. Second attempt at a Blues Brothers fanfic. Please Read and Review.


**Ok, this is my second attempt at a Blues Brothers fanfic. This is after when Elwood learns of Jake's demise (so yes, it's another Elwood mourning for Jake fic) and somewhere in the time of Blues Brothers 2000 before he thought of putting Mack, Cab, and Buster together as a band. **

**Anyway enjoy and please don't flame.**

**Jake, Camille, Elwood are characters that belong to Dan Aykroyd as well as Universal Studios**

Jake was gone.

The words haunted him every time he was alone and the darkness would set into him. He would feel his stomach twist and turn as if he had just gotten off a coaster (despite the fact that he'd never get on one) but only for a little bit then it would settle with a deep heaviness. His heart would pound against his chest as if it were a sledgehammer on an anvil as if he was dying but he knew he wasn't, not for a long time. His mind would race with all the good times of the original band of himself, Jake and Elwood Blues. The girls they got, the music they played that made the audience lose control of themselves, and be lost in the blues but not as lost as Jake and Elwood. They were the master blues-men practicing their craft for all the world to hear and possibly get a new view of music. A new view full of passion and soul, a great experience for not only the band but for everyone. In the end the memories swam and swirled as they formed into the same three words. Jake was gone. Jake was gone. Jake was gone, his mind repeated. It taunted him like self doubt as he tried not to believe it but there was no choice.

This happened to him quite often. However, he learned to suppress his emotions and wait until everyone was gone to release them out into thin air as if the walls were listening. A visible audience with no senses, the walls, the streets with their buildings and such, the air, and everything around him that wasn't alive. Just like Jake.

One night in the heart of December, he was alone on the streets. Walking along and trying to clear his mind of everything, especially Jake whose memory slowly slipped into his mind. It was dark in Chicago, especially this night. Winter had come and wasn't being friendly to whoever experienced its' harsh winds and lashes of cold.

Winter was like a woman. A hard headed woman who knew no happiness or kindness but remained beautiful yet deadly all the same, like Camille after Jake left her. Damnit, Jake again. Everything seemed different since he was gone. The winter seemed colder, the nights seemed darker with shadows of depression and loathing, the music slowly seemed to be...fading.

Elwood stopped in his tracks and thought about this. The music. The blues. It was all fading. All dying out like a star that was losing its' radiance or a diamond slowly losing its' luster. His shaded eyes made contact with the luminous queen of the sky, the moon. Beautiful and never ending, like memory but now it hid itself from Elwood behind a cloud of darkness leaving the whole world drowned in mangled shadows. It was gone. It was all gone now but not the music, no, not the music. Jake said that the blues would live forever, it would never die, it would always find a way to return. Elwood wished Jake would return so that the blues wouldn't have to die and dissipate into techno and disco.

He acknowledged the fact that he couldn't do this. He couldn't play the blues alone. Without Jake, there was nothing. No brotherhood, no blues, no nothing. With this, he took out his harmonica from his pocket. Looking at it through his shades every memory of Jake came back at that moment. When they first met, when they were taught the blues, when they first played their hearts out, when they committed their first crime, when they first drove together in the Bluesmobile. It all came back to him in a swirling vortex of his mind. It spun endlessly like the threads of life as he found himself trapped in it all. His heart began to pound again and his stomach started to flip again.

'Jake, why aren't you here? Jake, where are you damnit?! I need you,' his mind screamed as he longed to yell those words into the night as he restrained it all. He shut his eyes tightly for a moment, accepting the intensifying feelings as they coursed through his veins and messed with his mind like a drug with no cure. Memories still there but leaving, just like Jake left Elwood to the a world of no music and despair. No one could replace Jake. No one could be Jake. There was only one Jake and he was dead!

Elwood's eyes shot open. His breathing was heavy as his chest rose and fell, in tune with his heart which still pounded within. There was nothing left to do but play.

Taking in a deep breath he blew into the blues harp gripped tightly in his hands. The music was random as tears slow slid down his cold wind-whipped cheeks. He didn't care how red his cheeks turned, he resumed to play. All emotions letting loose into this one bit of music that seemed eternal. It seemed to increase the moonlight as the great orb of radiance became known again and for a moment, Elwood felt as if he was being watched. He hoped that Jake was watching him from behind the moon and over the clouds that stood out from the shadows.

His soul seemed to be writhing as he played, there was only so much he could release into his harmonica before his breath ran out. He didn't care if he wore out his lungs, he continued to play his song. A song for a brother of blues that he would always remember. Elwood could feel his breath shorten but he seemed careless as he continued to play. The song grew weary and angered as the melody began to fade. No, he refused to let it end. Blowing one last time into the harmonica, the final note was mourning and missing as if it were a void of feeling. It took most of his strength for him to play it as he fell to his knees in defeat of the emotion and melody.

The wind returned as it chilled the air. Believing that it would be harsh as it usually was, he lowered his head as he prepared for the worse winter had to offer. Instead, the wind seemed gentle and comforting which caused Elwood to go into disbelief. The wind, was it Jake? Had he truly been watching Elwood play? It was at then Elwood remembered something Jake had once said.

'The Lord works in mysterious ways.' Jake and God had an understanding or so Jake admitted on their mission from God. Elwood smirked and looked up into the night. The sky seemed lighter yet an element of darkness for the night but it was the kind of darkness that wouldn't cause depression or anger. It was the kind of darkness that could be understood by those who walked the night and lived within it. It was at then Elwood realized, Jake was there. Jake would always be there, especially in his mind, heart, soul, and blues.


End file.
